


A Dinner to Revive

by Bardwich



Category: Victoria (TV)
Genre: Drumfred, Drumfred AU, M/M, only mentions of Florence and Lothian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 16:21:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17348513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bardwich/pseuds/Bardwich
Summary: What if Alfred had run after Drummond right after he had stormed out of Ciro's? Here's my take on it.P.S.: Left it open-ended but let's imagine some sort of butterfly effect took place and Drummond didn't end up being shot dead the day after.





	A Dinner to Revive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Whydidtheydothis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whydidtheydothis/gifts).



‘I find I am not hungry.’

Drummond’s last words were ringing bitterly in Alfred’s ears even as he sat abandoned at the restaurant table.

As elated as he had been about having secured a private dinner with Drummond, as pained he was knowing he would have to proceed with caution. He had sensed, correctly as it turned out, that Drummond was inexperienced at matters such as the idea of some sort of relationship between them that went beyond friendship and therefore irrational and hotheaded.

So much so that Alfred had had to resort to pretending he didn’t feel as strongly about Drummond as his friend did in return but instead of calming him down Alfred’s tactic had just the opposite effect.

And Drummond bloody stormed out of Ciro’s.

Alfred was tempted to let him go, let that be it. Drummond was ready to break off his engagement any second, just like that, for God’s sake! No, it was better he left, he would get his mad, self-destructive, not to mention terribly risky ideas – risks about which Alfred, being more experienced about these things, knew more – out of his head, marry Lothian’s daughter, and live a long, successful life as a civil servant and a politician.

It would have been easy to keep sitting there.

‘Damn it…’ Alfred swore under his breath and stood regardless. They weren’t finished, he knew that. He couldn’t leave it all on this terrible note after all.

Besides that, regret was quickly catching up with his attempted and failed cleverness, as well as a terrible nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen if he didn’t run after Drummond.

So he did. That is, he was running after the carriage that had just departed.

‘No— Wait!’ Alfred gasped and, not caring a fig about who saw him in such an undignified moment as a gentleman, he ran to catch up with the carriage as fast as he could.

‘What on Earth--- Lord Alfred?!’ Drummond exclaimed as he spotted stylish blond locks outside the window.

‘Drummond, stop! Wait—’ Alfred tried to say, panting. Damn, Drummond’s horses were fast. And, though Alfred kept tapping the door urgently (and before he was run over by someone else’s bloody horse galloping past), the passenger was still too angry at him to stop and let him in.

So Alfred, surely driven only by some madness that no one else provoked in him, grabbed the latch, tugged hard, and hopped into the moving carriage.

‘Alfred!?’ Drummond exclaimed under Alfred’s weight – he had clumsily landed on him of course.

‘I’m sorry,’ Alfred panted, suddenly breathless because he was nose to nose with Drummond and their limbs were rather entangled.

But he could see Drummond still wore a frown.

He extracted himself from Drummond’s arms, closed the carriage door, and sat on the seat opposite him.

‘By God, what were you thinking?’ Drummond reprimanded, quite rightly so.

‘If you had just stopped…’ Alfred bit his lip. He didn’t come after Drummond to continue the argument. ‘I’m so sorry, Drummond. I shouldn’t have… What I said earlier - I’m sorry.’

‘Is it really all that was to you? An indiscretion?’ Drummond cut into futile apologies.

‘No, of course not,’ Alfred admitted.

‘Then why did you say so?’

‘Because… You don’t know what awful consequences may await us. If we’re ever found out—’

‘I know all the land’s laws by heart, Alfred. I'm Sir Robert Peel's Private Secretary. I am well aware of what’s at stake.’

‘Are you? By God… Believe me, there is nothing in the world that I want more than for you to break off your engagement, take my hand, and run off with me to Scotland or wherever where we can be together forever, dancing, laughing, swimming unclad, and kissing in the sun, and so many more things, if that doesn’t shock you,’ Alfred rattled before he changed his mind and stayed silent again, causing Drummond to turn crimson red and forget about his anger entirely. ‘But… Lothian would ruin you, Drummond.’

‘Edward. Please.’

Now it was Alfred’s turn to blush. ‘Edward… Still, you know him. He’s a vile and vicious man. I mean, how long have you been engaged to the poor girl?’

‘Almost a year.’

‘A year?! Drummond – Edward,’ Alfred gulped. The situation was far worse than he had thought. ‘Why has it only just been announced?’

‘Because I’ve kept postponing it, of course,’ Drummond admitted gravely. ‘I agreed it would be only right that I should marry if I am to move on into party politics. Unmarried men in my field are almost unheard of, it’s as if it’s a sign of one’s questionable character. I suppose I could stay a civil servant but I admit I was hoping to advance from that at some point. Lacking the passion for it, I wasn’t exactly looking for a bride but we found that Lady Florence doted on me so…’

‘I cannot fault her on that,’ Alfred remarked.

‘…and it seemed a wasted opportunity not to indulge her designs. I now curse the day I agreed to it all, believe me.’

‘But why even propose if you knew you wouldn’t—’

‘But I didn’t know until Scotland, did I? Not for sure, at least.’

Alfred felt a jolt of something like lightning shot through his heart. What was there that they could possibly do?

‘Edward, I know I’ve no right to determine your future,’ Alfred started but Drummond interrupted him.

‘But that’s just it, Alfred, I do want you to determine my future. I want you to be a very significant part of it, as a matter of fact. The fact is that I have fallen in love with you. And that I could never love Florence or anyone else like I love you. I’m sorry if—’

Whatever Drummond was sorry about, he couldn’t say, as Alfred had swiftly drew the curtains shading the carriage windows and drowned his words in a kiss.

They were almost at Drummond’s address by the time they willed themselves to part.

Drummond was about to offer taking Alfred home to the Palace when he heard in a sweet whisper:

‘I love you too.’

‘Now you must come in,’ Drummond replied, giving into the honest desires of his heart.

‘I… I’m not sure… your servants…’

‘Just for a glass of whisky, I meant,’ Drummond added, bursting from whatever exciting but embarrassing feelings were causing the very blood in his veins to jitter and rush and make him more light-headed than ever.

‘We never even got to dinner,’ Alfred remarked, laughing.

‘I find that I am not hungry,’ Drummond repeated himself, only this time with wholly different implications behind his words.

Against his better judgement, Alfred followed him into his house and no longer thought it a shame that they never tasted the oysters at Ciro’s.


End file.
